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With few exceptions, the most commonly recommended triple Helicobacter pylori regimen (proton pump inhibitor (PPI), amoxicillin and clarithromycin) now provides unacceptably low treatment success. A review of worldwide results suggests that successful eradication using a triple regimen is not consistently observed in any population. Clinicians should use 'only use what works locally' and ignore consensus statements and society guidelines if they are not consistent with local results. Clinical trials should be result based, with the goal of identifying regimens with >90-95% success. New treatments should be only be compared with the currently locally effective treatment (>90%) or a historical untreated control (which has been shown to reliably yield 0% eradication); trials using placebos or treatments known to be inferior are with rare exceptions unethical. If a highly effective regimen is not available locally, we recommend trying a 14 day concomitant quadruple treatment regimen containing a PPI, amoxicillin, clarithromycin and a nitroimidazole; 10 day sequential treatment (PPI plus amoxicillin for 5 days followed by a PPI, clarithromycin and a nitroimidazole for 5 days); or 14 day bismuth-containing quadruple treatments. Treatments needing further evaluation include those containing furazolidone or nitazoxanide, hybrids of sequential-concomitant therapies and amoxicillin-PPI dual therapy with PPI doses such that they maintain intragastric pH >6.

SUMMARY BackgroundInformation regarding the effects of drug resistance on therapies for Helicobacter pylori is limited.

Although Helicobacter pylori infection is both a common and a serious bacterial infection, antimicrobial therapies have rarely been optimized, are prescribed empirically, and provide inferior results compared with antimicrobial therapies for other common infectious diseases. The effectiveness of many of the frequently recommended H. pylori infection treatment regimens has been increasingly compromised by antimicrobial resistance. Regional data on the susceptibility of strains of H. pylori to available antimicrobials are sorely needed. Noninvasive molecular methods are possible to assess clarithromycin susceptibility in isolates obtained from stool specimens. As a general rule, clinicians should prescribe therapeutic regimens that have a ≥90% or, preferably, ≥95% eradication rate locally. If no available regimen can achieve a ≥90% eradication rate, clinicians should use the most effective regimen(s) available locally. Eradication of infection should always be confirmed after treatment in order to provide feedback regarding local effectiveness and an early warning of increasing resistance. In most regions of the world, four-drug treatment regimens, including a PPI plus three antimicrobials (clarithromycin, metronidazole/tinidazole and amoxicillin), or a PPI plus a bismuth plus tetracycline and metronidazole provide the best results. Standard triple therapy (a PPI, amoxicillin and clarithromycin) should now be avoided owing to increasing resistance to this treatment.

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SUMMARYBackground: Owing to rising drug-resistant Helicobacter pylori infections, currently recommended proton-pump inhibitor-based triple therapies are losing their efficacy, and regimens efficacious in the presence of drug resistance are needed. Aims: To summarize the efficacy, safety and adherence of first-line quadruple H. pylori therapies in adults. Methods: Meta-regression models identified factors explaining variation in the efficacy of first-line quadruple therapies from 145 treatment arms. Estimates of average efficacy were calculated within homogeneous groups. Results: Quadruple therapy containing a gastric acid inhibitor, bismuth, metronidazole and tetracycline was enhanced when omeprazole was included, treatment duration lasted 10-14 days, and when therapy took

More effective treatments are needed for most populations of the world where H. pylori infection in children and drug resistance are common. Current treatment guidelines do not coincide with the best treatment regimens identified in this meta-analysis.

Background & Aims Abdominal obesity increases the risk of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and might also contribute to development of Barrett's esophagus (BE), although results are inconsistent. We examined the effects of waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and body mass index (BMI) on the risk of BE and investigated whether race, GERD symptoms, or hiatus hernia were involved. Methods We conducted a case-control study using data from eligible patients who underwent elective esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD); 237 had BE and the other 1021 served as endoscopy controls. We also analyzed data and tissue samples from enrolled patients who were eligible for screening colonoscopies at a primary care clinic (colonoscopy controls, n=479). All patients underwent EGD, completed a survey, and had anthropometric measurements taken. WHR was categorized as high if was ≥0.9 for men and ≥0.85 for women. Data were analyzed with logistic regression. Results There was no association between BMI and BE. However, more patients with BE had a high WHR (92.4%) than endoscopy controls (79.5%) or colonoscopy controls (84.6%) (P<.001 and P=.008, respectively). In adjusted analysis, patients with BE were 2-fold more likely to have a high WHR than endoscopy controls (odds ratio [OR], 1.93; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1– 3.5), this association was stronger for patients with long-segment BE (OR, 2.81; 95% CI, 1.0−7.9). A high WHR was significantly associated with BE only in Whites (OR=2.5; 95% CI, 1.2–5.4)—not in Blacks or Hispanics. GERD symptoms, hiatus hernia, or gastroesophageal valve flap grade could not account for the association. Conclusions High WHR, but not BMI, is associated with a significant increase in the risk of BE, especially long-segment BE and in Whites. The association is not due to GERD symptoms or hiatus hernia.